1 Boring Old Man

Erik Erikson was a Psychoanalyst – a ego psychologist and a contemporary of Anna Freud. He conceived of development in an interesting way – as a series of developmental crises, unfolding throughout the life cycle. He presented these "stages" as a series of dichotomies. The goal of the whole process was middle adulthood [Generativity vs. Self absorption or Stagnation]. He saw late life this way:

Late Adulthood: 55 or 65 to Death

Ego Development Outcome: Integrity vs. Despair

Basic Strengths: Wisdom

Erikson felt that much of life is preparing for the middle adulthood stage and the last stage is recovering from it. Perhaps that is because as older adults we can often look back on our lives with happiness and are content, feeling fulfilled with a deep sense that life has meaning and we’ve made a contribution to life, a feeling Erikson calls integrity. Our strengt h comes from a wisdom that the world is very large and we now have a detached concern for the whole of life, accepting death as the completion of life.

On the other hand, some adults may reach this stage and despair at their experiences and perceived failures. They may fear death as they struggle to find a purpose to their lives, wondering "Was the trip worth it?" Alternatively, they may feel they have all the answers (not unlike going back to adolescence) and end with a strong dogmatism that only their view has been correct.

The significant relationship is with all of mankind—"my-kind."

He joined up with the Conservative Think-Tank, The American Enterprise Institute, and was one of the founders of The Project for the New American Century. In 1995, he did the first of several characteristically Cheney-like things. He had parlayed his way in the political arena before. This time, he did it in the private sector. When the Defense/Oil Drilling Conglomerate, Halliburton, consulted him about their search for a C.E.O., he said "what about me?" and they bought it. He would later do the same thing with the Bush 2000 campaign. When appointed to search for a Vice Presidential candidate, he found himself. But he spent his mid to late fifties with Halliburton, making several speeches about the Middle Eastern Oil fields being the way to the future of the energy business.

My take on this story is that Cheney reached the doorway to late life a frustrated man. He was at the age where he was being consulted as something of a wise elder statesman, but instead of  accepting that role, he inserted himself into the game. Confirming that idea, in 1994, he mounted a preliminary campaign for the Presidency. His adult life had not taken him as far as he would like to go and he was still jockeying for position. So, a few weeks before his 60th birthday, he was inaugurated Vice President of the United States. At the time, I think a lot of us were comforted that a wise old man was accompanying George W. Bush to the White House. Even though Bush was in his mid 50’s, many of us saw him as a child, an adolescent at best, elected by a wave of Conservative and Religious Right sentiment rather than on his own merits. Perhaps Cheney would bring "wisdom" to the Administration. Certainly, Cheney’s demeanor was that of a wise older man. Like most of us, I didn’t know about Halliburton, the Oil thing, The Project for the New American Century. I didn’t know about Cheney, the opportunist, the ultra-conservative Congressman. Like most of us, I only knew about his tenure as the Secretary of Defense.

We didn’t get a wise old man in Dick Cheney. We got us a genuine curmudgeon. As I look back over Cheney’s career, I see an ambitious, opinionated man who never made it to the top – as least the top he aspired to. I suspect that his wife, Lynn, was a part of that ambition – a projection of her own. Cheney’s planned trajectory was cut short repeatedly by "bad luck" – Nixon’s fall, Ford’s defeat, George Bush Sr.’s defeat. It’s tempting to suggest, as others have, that Cheney’s bad luck was partly the result of his own failings, but that’s speculative. More to the point, Cheney has hardly entered late life a symbol of Integrity, focusing on "man-kind." He’s a self absorbed, bitter old curmudgeon – "A crusty irascible cantankerous old person full of stubborn ideas." I guess he wanted to be President all along, and he couldn’t get there on his own – so he’s pretended to be President [as second in command to a fool]. Our country has been run from the background by a sneering, disdainful, frustrated old man who likely hates George W. Bush for occupying an office he could never achieve for himself. Dick Cheney is a tragic figure who has steered us down a tragic path.

In 1941, the year of Cheney’s birth, RKO released one of the classic films of all times, Citizen Kane. It is the story of a man corrupted by ruthless ambition – a modern tale in the tradition of Shakespearean Drama and Aristotle’s Poetics – a tale that well fits the life of Dick Cheney.